Sotomayor Comes Out Swinging

Apparently they didn't call her a Wise Latina for nothing.

In her maiden Supreme Court appearance last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a provocative comment that probed the foundations of corporate law.

During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court's majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled.

But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong -- and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.

Judges "created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons," she said. "There could be an argument made that that was the court's error to start with...[imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics."

I have to admit I was little nervous that Sotomayor would turn out to be a stealth corporate shill, so while I don't want to read too much into a single sentence, I'm greatly relieved to have heard her say it. Revoking corporate personhood would go a long way towards solving the corporate stranglehold on society. Granted she can't do it alone, but it's a start.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]